For deep diving it is usual to employ helium as the admixing gas with the oxygen required to be breathed by the divers. Helium is an inert gas and avoids the narcotic effect which can be obtained by breathing nitrogen under conditions of extreme pressure.
Helium however is a gas which is in very short supply and exceedingly costly. Heretofore helium which has been used in diving bells, for example, has been wasted, merely being vented to the atmosphere, and replaced by new helium supplies which themselves have originated from gas wells.
Many attempts have been made and much research has been undertaken in an effort to obtain a suitable substitute for helium, but at the time of making this invention no suitable substitute has been accepted generally as being useful for commercial diving and economical, and the main object of this invention is therefore to provide a means and method whereby helium from a diving bell can be reclaimed.
A further object of this invention is to provide a means and method whereby the reclamation can take place without interfering with normal operation of a diving bell.